No supportive step for abused female migrants until now

Recognize problems, open returnee centres, demand experts

Female workers on return home from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as victims of abuse get no support from the Wage Earner Welfare Fund created with contributions from migrant workers.Wage Earners Welfare Board officials told New Age that they could not take any programme to support the victim female workers until now though they were returning home in increasing numbers.Migrant rights activists called upon the government to recognize the problems facing the female migrant workers and ensure their protection at home and abroad.They also called for opening centres for the returnee victims of abuse. At least 250 housemaids returned home mostly from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as victims of abuse, said officials and migrant rights campaigners. On return home the victims narrated their terrible sufferings in the KSA.Only BRAC Migration programme extended emergency support to 600 housemaids who returned from the KSA as victims of abuse in last three months.The BRAC programme received the victims at airport, gave them food and financial assistance to reach their homes in the countryside, said BRAC migration programme head Shariful Hasan.He told New Age that BRAC provided Tk one lakh to each of 22 housemaids who came back from the KSA as the worst victims of abuse.He said that the help was extended to enable the victims restart life.Shariful Hasan said that the victims of abuse were returning home traumatized needing urgent psychiatric counseling and medical treatment.‘It is the responsibility of all of us specially the state to take urgent steps for the permanent and sustainable reintegration of the victims of abuse’ he said. Ovibashi Karmi Unnayan Program chairman Shakirul Islam called it shocking that the government of Bangladesh failed to recognize the serious issue.WARBE Development Foundation chairman Syed Saiful Haque said that Philippines and Ghana opened centres to extend supportive services to their migrant workers who return home facing problems. ‘The welfare fund created with contributions deducted from migrant workers at the time of departure should be spent for the victims and anyone who come back in distressed conditions,’ he said.The welfare board should immediately compensate the workers, he said.Migrant right activist Jasiya khatoon said that the social protection should be extended to the victims by the welfare board.